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8 year old called a hero after safely stopping moving van

Sunday, April 8, 2012

CROPWELL — An 8-year-old girl’s quick thinking saved her sisters from harm by steering a moving van safely to a stop.

“She’s a hero,” Rhonda Hooks of Cropwell said about her oldest daughter, Beka.

Hooks said a couple of weeks ago the family was getting ready to go to school. Beka and her two sisters, Tori, 6, and Abi, 3, were in the family’s van.

“I started to buckle up and there was a wasp right where I grabbed the seatbelt,” Hooks said. “I just stepped out to shake the wasp off so it wouldn’t fly back in.”

Hooks said her Toyota Sienna was in drive and began to roll down the driveway.

“It was several feet away by the time I realized it was moving,” she said. “I started running after it and grabbed the door handle and steering wheel, but when I tried to jump in the van it dragged me down.”

Hooks said Beka saw her fall and sprang into action.

“I got my foot stuck in Abi’s car seat, and when I got my foot unstuck, I hit my head on the (overhead) DVD player,” Beka said. “I got up there and turned the wheel so we wouldn’t hit a truck and stomped on the brakes.”

Hooks, who was chasing after the runaway van, said she thought it was going to roll across the road and hit the neighbor’s truck and house.

“All of a sudden, it just stopped,” she said. “I got up there and found Beka in the driver’s seat with her foot on the brake. She was so relieved to see me that she momentarily let off the brake, but hit it again as soon as she realized it would still move.”

Hooks quickly slammed the gear shift to park.

“I didn’t even realize I was hurt,” she said.

Hooks, who was 19 weeks pregnant at the time, had scrapes on her stomach and a large bruise on one leg where she hit the bottom of the doorframe trying to jump into the van.

“It could have been a lot worse,” she said.

Hooks said she went to the emergency room as a precaution, and the doctor said she and the baby were fine.

Beka said she was still “shaking a little” when she got to school, because she was afraid her mother and the baby might be injured.

“I had always wanted to wait to teach the children to drive so they wouldn’t try to sneak out and drive,” Hooks said. “You hear on the news about some 6-year-old who drives to the store for a candy bar and I didn’t want them to be tempted. But now I realize they need to know some things.”

Beka said she now knows how to put the van in park and turn it off.

“I was kinda panicking, but just did it anyway,” Beka said. “I’m always two steps ahead (thinking ahead).”

Hooks said she is thankful her daughter knew the difference between the gas pedal and the brake.

“I can’t wait to drive, and had been watching my mom when she drives,” Beka said.

She said her classmates were surprised when they heard what she had done.

“The scariest thing for me was that Beka was unbuckled in the front seat,” Hooks said. “I’ve never been so thankful for her ‘two steps ahead thinking’ in my life.”

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Keywords: Cropwell, moving van, hero, 8 year old girl,

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